Friday, November 16, 2012

Israel strike on Gaza car raises toll to 29: medics

One Palestinian was killed and two wounded in an Israeli strike on a Gaza car on Friday, shortly after a raid that killed four people, Hamas medical officials said.
“One citizen was martyred and two others seriously injured in an Israeli strike on a car in Deir al-Balah,” in central Gaza, said Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesman for the Hamas health ministry.
The strike came shortly after a raid that killed four Palestinians in the central Maghazi district.
“Three citizens were martyred in a strike in Maghazi camp and their bodies were taken to Shuhada al-Aqsa Hospital,” Qudra said, adding subsequently that a fourth man was killed in the same strike.
Security sources named one of the dead as Ahmed Abu Jalal, a field commander of Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades.
Qudra added that the strike, in the central Gaza Strip, targeted a home and that two of those killed were brothers.
The latest deaths raised the toll in violence that began Wednesday afternoon to 29, with more than 270 people wounded, Palestinian officials said.
They came as fresh air strikes rattled buildings across the enclave, with officials reporting strikes in Gaza City, central Khan Yunis and southern Rafah.
Earlier, Hamas health minister Mufid al-Mukhalalati warned in a press conference at Gaza City’s Shifa hospital that “there is an acute shortage of medicine and medical supplies.”
He urged “Arab countries and all parties to support the health sector,” thanking Egypt for the help it has already offered.
Since Israel’s targeted killing of a top Hamas military chief on Wednesday afternoon, rockets fired from Gaza have killed three Israelis and injured 16, police and medics said.